“Raw.” The simple, but evocative word Susan Fanning chooses to describe Africa. After spending a good chunk of her life on the continent (eleven years), native Irishwoman Susan decided to return once again and continue her love affair with the country and its people. This time, she spent it within the Maasai community through a Maasai Warrior Training program put together by Laura Alessandrini and Silas Kitonga. Silas is a Maasai from Il ‘Ngwesi, the area where Maasai Warrior Training takes place. The eponymous Il ‘Ngwesi Lodge also happens to be the site of a documentary, Milk the Rhino, which focuses on community conservation by the Maasai.

These are golden times for cinephiles and bibliophiles. Bookworms and movie buffs can now check out the latest cinematic and literary offerings in the most unexpected corners of the globe. And if you imagine literary festivals as gatherings of fusty old intellectuals spouting arcane references to James Joyce, think again! They are fast outshining movie festivals as the places to be seen if you’re hip, happening and brainy to boot.

Fed up with the endless grey and drizzle of a London winter and the monotony of my office job, I decided it was time to finally make my African dream a reality. For some time, I had been entertaining thoughts of roaming the Kenyan savannah on a big-game safari, but I was also keen to get to know the country and its people on a more intimate level, not merely scrape the surface as a package tourist.

The Tour d’Afrique is an annual transcontinental bicycling odyssey that starts at the pyramids near Cairo, Egypt, in January, and then traverses 10 countries and every kind of road surface imaginable before spinning into Cape Town, South Africa, some four months and 11,800 kilometres later. It attracts nomadic souls and cycling enthusiasts of all ages and abilities, from triathletes to retirees.